On the 5th, protesters who had sealed off the Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 polling station in Songpa-gu, Seoul, for two nights and three days during the June 3 local elections due to a shortage of ballots effectively sealed off a nearby counting center again and are calling for a rerun. During this process, protesters also confined and assaulted reporters from news outlets.
In the afternoon, citizens alleging election fraud and conservative-leaning YouTubers flocked to the Olympic Park Handball Arena in Songpa-gu, the counting center. As of 8 p.m., about 1,000 people had gathered there, according to an unofficial police estimate.
They are surrounding the arena building and chanting the slogan "rerun." They are occupying entrances around the arena, saying election commission officials could slip out with ballots and other materials as they leave the counting center.
Protesters began gathering there around 10 a.m., right after police removed ballot boxes from the polling station. It appears to be the result of guidance shared via YouTube broadcasts and online chat rooms related to alleged election fraud, calling on people to "assemble at Olympic Park." They are urging protesters to form a human chain, saying the election commission can take ballots out of the counting center at any time.
Some protesters brought strollers or came with infants and young children. Jeon Han-gil, a Korean history instructor who has alleged election fraud, and the attorney for Mos Tan (Dan Hyun-myeong), a professor at Liberty University in the United States, are also present.
During this process, reporters were also assaulted. It happened as they were leaving after identifying themselves as journalists.
The JTBC chapter said, "They menacingly blocked a JTBC reporter who came out through a window, demanding 'prove you are not an election commission employee,' and they forcibly encircled the reporter, restricting movement," adding, "They assaulted the unprotected reporting crew. They hit them with their hands, threw their mobile phone, and grabbed and shook the bag strap until it finally snapped."
It also said it had obtained footage of the assault and would immediately begin legal action against the assailants. The JTBC chapter said, "Violence against journalists goes beyond an attack on an individual reporter and infringes on freedom of the press and the public's right to know, guaranteed by the Constitution," calling it "a grave threat that undermines the foundation of democracy."